Former DNREC Secretary O’Mara plans governor run

WILMINGTON – In the latest twist in the 2024 election, Collin O’Mara, a former Delaware Secretary of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and current CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, is exploring a run for governor.

O’Mara, who has kept a home in Bear despite working out of Washington, D.C., for nearly the last decade, has formed a campaign committee to run in the 2024 Democratic Primary.

He joins a gubernatorial campaign that already features New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall Long, who has been endorsed by Gov. John Carney but also been hamstrung by prior campaign finance issues.

O’Mara said that he was “encouraged to run by a growing number of Delawareans who want a campaign focused on real solutions to the immense challenges we face.”

“Delaware needs a new generation of leadership. The serious challenges we face — from not enough well-paying jobs and underperforming schools to the existential threat of climate change and the interrelated crises of poverty, unaffordable housing, inaccessible healthcare, and crime — demand not only serious debate, but sustainable and equitable solutions for our future,” he said in a statement announcing the campaign.

The campaign has been the subject of the state’s rumor mill for a few months, but still comes as a surprise because O’Mara has largely been out of the local public eye since taking over the NWF. He also now has less than nine months to begin fundraising and setting up a campaign team and infrastructure before the 2024 primary election on Sept. 3. According to the campaign’s statement of incorporation, O’Mara’s treasurer is J. Brett Taylor, who is director of finance for the city of Wilmington.

As governor, O’Mara said he would work to improve “the Four E’s” – the economy, education, environment, and equitable access to housing, health care, and public safety.

“He is particularly focused on creating 40,000 family-sustaining jobs by implementing President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPs and Science Act, building 21st century infrastructure, and growing key economic sectors, including financial services, life sciences, sustainable chemistry, agriculture, and tourism/hospitality,” the campaign said. “Collin has a plan to rebuild Delaware’s middle class as we become the first state to achieve 100% clean energy, first to net-zero emissions, and a national leader in advancing environmental justice. This includes aggressively removing pollution from our water, air, and soils, leading on offshore wind and solar, repowering industrial facilities and heavy transportation vehicles with green hydrogen, and investing in energy efficiency.”

O’Mara was the youngest cabinet secretary in the nation when then-Gov. Jack Markell appointed him to serve as DNREC secretary in 2009 at the age of 29. Prior to leading DNREC, he served as economic development officer and clean tech strategist for the city of San José, Calif., and as assistant budget director for the city of Syracuse, N.Y.

He graduated from Dartmouth College and Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, before serving as a university fellow at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. His wife,Krishanti “Krish” O’Mara Vignarajah, served as policy director for First Lady Michelle Obama and currently leads one of the nation’s largest immigration nonprofits, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. They have three daughters.

Vignarajah notably ran for governor of Maryland in 2018, finishing fourth in the Democratic primary.